It was asked in Newsletter "Do you have a story
about the only surviving, Direct descendant of Joe Wilson:
Hiram". I come up with this from past memories ..
Hiram has always been a knowledgeable person on most
any subject that arises, Due to his mechanical Aptitude.
At that time (1937) our mailbox was directly
across the road from Hiram.

The story begins when my dad bought a battery radio "Silvertone"
from Sears Robuck and Co. Well Hiram saw that contraption,
As my dad and I met the Mail Carrier and picked it up.
After a preview look at that thing, Hiram suggested
it might take a little ingenuity to hook that dad-burn thing up.
I remember Dad saying there was no hurry,
as long as it was ready to go by Saturday night.
It seemed if He had already told the neighborhood
about the arrival date of delivery.

Somehow Dad had found out about the "Grand Old Opera" being on Saturday night.
Well the Wheelbarrow would prove to be A reliable way to get this radio home.
They packed the home made wheelbarrow with straw, and placed the Radio in the center..
The Radio with the two B- batteries and one A+ battery weighed approximately 65 lbs.
The grade was all "up hill".

They got the radio home, opened the package, played with the knobs
awhile, then got out the book of instructions.
It seemed simple enough: The Batteries would not plug in but one way.
As soon as the last battery was plugged in, That thing started whistling and blowing.

While fooling with the Knobs, they had failed to turn the Power switch to the Off position.
Well after the near - run away, Hiram came back, reached over to turn another knob,
and as he got closer to that dad-burn radio
the noise of that thing kept getting louder and louder!

Dad interceded, Don't touch that thing! It may be fixing to blow up!, he said.
They went back to the Book, turned the page and looked at another picture.
There it had the knobs displayed. They noticed the circle arrows
around the duel purpose power switch--volume control,
pointing to the left for the OFF position.
Well I'm gonna turn that blasted thing off, Hiram said.

After looking at a few more pictures and this time, reading the entire book,
they learned about the conductive affect of ones body when it is close,
or touches the tuning capacitor. On the same page,
they discovered the ‘hook up' and necessity of the long
copper wire included in the box.

After learning the importance of height and length of this antenna,
Dad sharpened his axe and pole peeler, went out,
cut and peeled a pine pole about 30 foot tall.
Hiram attached the insulators to the pole,
connected necessary wire to the insulators,
stood that slick pole up and attached it to the gable end of the house.
He took the loose end of the wire across the front yard,
climbed the big White Oak tree and tied it to a limb
where he had previously attached another insulator.
This end also, close to 30 feet high.


This Antenna, after that first day would prove to be the most efficient long range
system in our neighborhood for years to come.
That pine pole remained there until 1974.
The antenna was used with other radios after the old Silver Tone was discarded,
due to the high cost of batteries. It was 1951 when the
R.E.A power Co. brought the Electric power to the Roy Wilson Home.
Roy died in 1949, Mom died 1980. (This is only another chapter in
"For the Love of Grape Arkansas"

Story by Isaac Wilson... 1993

The Sunshine Ambassador

Thanks for sitting awhile with me.!!!